The experimentation continues

I am now on day 7 of the re-introduction phase of my food intolerance test. Apart from getting easier, it's getting harder. Maybe my will power is simply waning, but the more foods I'm allowed to eat, the more foods I want to eat. Also, judging whether or not I've had a reaction to something is proving somewhat difficult. The eggs, were obvious. I felt like I'd been hit by a train. Grand, no problems there. The citrus fruit and corn was more subtle. I could feel symptoms of sinus inflammation creeping back in on those particular days. I also developed an ache in my back and a seriously low mood. The back ache is coming and going now and the mood has picked up since I stopped eating the corn. But to be honest the more foods I introduce, the more I'm slowly beginning to feel like my old pre detox self. Am I just intolerant to everything? I am a very intolerant person. Or am I doing this all wrong? Who knows. 

I tried dairy in the last couple of days. The milk seemed to go fine, then I tried yoghurt and the next day cheese and butter. I'm suspicious of my reactions to the yoghurt, cheese and butter with my sinus symptoms persisting and a growing lethargy that had me falling asleep on the couch at 10 o'clock both evenings, it would seem that something might be be amiss. 

Or was I just really tired? How much of what I'm feeling should I be attributing to the intolerance or how much is just me loving sleep? To add to the mix I have had serious back and neck ache for the last few days. So that's fun too. No idea if that's diet related. I'm beginning to go back to the 'this is confusing and a waste of time' way of thinking. 

The next 3 days I'm due to introduce wholegrain wheat. Three forms have been recommended on the diet sheet - 100% shredded wheat, wholewheat bread such as McCambridges (actually specified on the diet - maybe they're in cahoots) and wholewheat pasta. So far if I had an inkling that something might be contributing to a reaction, I've been cutting it out again once I noticed the reaction. My will power with the dairy though seems to be hampering me this time. A bowl of shredded wheat with milk for breakfast, how else are you supposed to eat them? And now I'm fantasising about a snack of brown toast and butter. I'm so excited about the melted butter and the crisp toast that even though I have an inkling I reacted to the butter previously, I can't seem to stop myself from pushing the button on the toaster. I even have the butter out of the fridge since last night to soften in preperation. I've waited so long for this. What harm? If you don't know you shouldn't do something, is that the same as knowing you should?....I will let you know if it kills me.

In other exciting news, plans are in full flow for Brunch Club on Saturday. Although it's proving incredibly difficult to make tasty treats when you have no idea what they taste like. So far I've made what looks like a tasty granola and some sugar free, gluten free, dairy free date muffins, which it pains me not to be able to try. The muffins disappeared within hours so that's a good sign and I'm assured the granola is as granola should be. There's something decidedly wrong when you make everything free muffins and you're still not allowed eat them. I'll post the recipes for both below as they're winner recipes, especially if you're interested in being a bit healthier with your snacks.

Toasted Muesli

I got the recipe for the toasted muesli from the beautiful cookbook 'What Katie Ate' by Katie Quinn Davies. I highly recommend it. Full of delicious recipes from her blog and so beautifully styled you want to eat everything. Here's her blog. 

Here's the recipe:

ingredients

500g rolled oats
75g wheatgerm
60g shredded coconut
150g sunflower seeds
200g pumpkin seeds
160g almonds
140g hazelnuts
3 tbs rapeseed oil
3 tbs honey
3 tbs maple syrup
280g sultanas/currants/raisins/or a mix
70g chopped dried dates or figs


method

preheat the oven to 130c

mix together the oats, wheatgerm, coconut, seeds and nuts. (I chopped the nuts a bit so there was some whole and some pieces)

divide the mixture into two bowls

heat the oil, honey and syrup in a pan until it is thin and runny

pour over one bowl of mixture and stir until everything is well coated

bake for about an hour shaking the trays occasionally to ensure they cook evenly - you want it to be a golden colour when done

remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before adding to the other half of the mixture

add the dried fruit and store in an airtight container

Date Muffins

gluten free, dairy free, sugar free date muffins

The recipe for the date muffins can be found over here and comes from a really interesting blog by Tania Hubbard which is all about eating gluten and grain free but with a really non preachy commonsense approach which is very refreshing. I recommend having a read of some of her stuff if you're interested in exploring more about gluten free living.

Intolerable intolerances

2014 is getting off to a slow and miserable start it seems. As if the weather wasn't enough to get you down I have now inflicted on myself the most miserable punishing diet known to man. I've never been one for diets, but after pretty much a lifetime of stomach upsets, skin issues, fatigue and generally feeling not great, I've always had a sneaking suspicion that there's something going on in my diet which is having an adverse effect on how I'm feeling. That coupled with a stubborn repetitive strain injury, meant this was the year I finally decided to get down to doing something about it. There's plenty of info online about elimination diets and I suppose I could have tried to do it on my own but I decided that I would need some guidance in this as I really had no clue what I was doing and there's widely varying ideas out there. So at great expense I took myself off to an allergy specialist who is either taking me for a complete ride or is going to change my life. Fingers crossed for the latter.

One of the things I've learned to date is that I never could have done this on my own. The initial diet is so limiting that I never would have had the willpower to stick to it had I not had someone in a white coat, to whom I was paying a sizeable sum of money, to answer to at the end of it. (I'll give details of the initial diet below so you can sympathise with my misery - basically nothing processed, no flavours not even pepper, no grains or soy and rice is the only carbohydrate you're allowed - awful.) At first I had great notions of coming up with lots of exciting recipes to try and make it interesting but I quickly gave up. About the most interesting thing I was able to come up with was a nice cashew and herb crust for a piece of fish, but that's hardly life changing now is it?

The second thing I learned was that this was going to cost me quite a lot in grocery bills. Although I'm probably making great savings on treats and booze, nuts my friends are not cheap.

Thirdly, I learned that the initial diet was probably the easy bit. I'm now in stage two and it's time to start reintroducing foods. Which is great. Until they start reacting badly with you and 1) you feel terrible and 2) you realise that you may have to say goodbye to this food, possibly forever.

First to be reintroduced was potatoes. Went without a hitch. Second came eggs. I woke up thrilled at the prospect of having a real breakfast for the first time in 10 days. (many of the last week's breakfasts consisted of some form of the dinner from the night before) I made myself two delicious poached eggs and some nice fried potatoes, wolfed them down and within an hour nearly fell asleep at my computer. I haven't felt a wave of fatigue like that in quite some time and the instantaneous reaction from the breakfast was quite startling. I had asked my doctor how I would know if I was intolerant to something and his reply was 'you'll know'. At the time I found this a totaly unsatisfactory response and I left his office marking one up for the 'you're wasting your money' column. I suppose today the columns evened out a little. As if that wasn't bad enough, I then attempted some gluten free, sugar free baking.....more on this experiment later perhaps....and have had a stomach ache since. Given that everything else in the 'cake' had been in my diet in the last ten days I guess eggs are the culprit.

The next two weeks will see a slow reintroduction of various foods so the experimentation continues. In the meantime it's still no eating out, no booze, no sugar, no fun. 

Life it seems is a little dull.

the offending diet

Thankfully I have managed to salvage some enjoyment out of my misery. In the search to find some sort of post dinner treat that will sate my need for after dinner sweetness I have discovered the delights of dairy free/sugar free 'ice cream'. Lest the name fool you there is no cream involved and rather the whole thing can be made from frozen fruit. It's surprisingly tasty and has a lovely texture somewhere between ice cream and sorbet.

It couldn't be easier to make although it did nearly finish off my little mini blender, but it was on it's last legs anyway. Note to self - save up for a proper food processor.

Here's the how to:

Dairy free/sugar free ice-cream

ingredients:
bananas
whatever flavourings you desire/are allowed to have - things like cocoa, nut butters, honey, vanilla, coconut, fruits, you can be as creative as you like really. I used raspberries as that's what I had and that's what I'm allowed to eat.

All you need to do is peel and slice some bananas and freeze. When they're frozen you blend them up with your flavour of choice. (I used about 1/2 cup raspberries for 2 bananas). The consistency should be something like soft serve ice cream at this stage. It helps to blend the frozen fruit in small batches too if your blender is as weedy as mine. Transfer the mix to a freezable container and return to the freezer for a few hours. It doesn't need any stirring like regular ice cream, just leave it be and it will turn out delicious.

I served mine with some chopped nuts.

Enjoy.